Let it be known henceforth: EL PARAMO is the greatest instrumental krautrock band to ever come out of… um… Madrid, Spain? Well, it's real… it's damn real. With the all-Spanish song titles and spacey album cover, one might immediately think these guys are some sort of psychedelic Latin experience a la POSEIDOTICA. While there is a fair share of mind tripping to be had throughout the near-hour of this here self-titled debut, it's all in the Teutonic tradition. And what a job they've done at capturing the style at its finest: From the gentle fuzz of the guitars to the tight pop of the snare drum, this is one impressive sounding CD. Now even though the name of the band translates to "desert," they're not dry on ideas. For evidence of this band's wealth of effort, check out the bird-like cackling guitar on "Infeccion de Escorpion," the layer-upon-layer density of "Sirope de Arena" and the generous melody of "El Aguijon." And truth be told, this album as a whole has considerably more melody than the better share of their competition.

Yep…looks like we're shown once again that, when it comes to musical styles, geography don't mean a thing, jelly bean. COLOUR HAZE fans are gonna find themselves eating this one up, but so should anyone else who wants some chilled-out rock music. Make no mistake, folks… EL PARAMO is hot!

- Cardona

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/elparamo

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